Disappointed

Although I wrote about the North Star in my paper, reading chapter 2 in Voices of Revolution helped me see the importance The Liberator had in starting a national dialog about Anti-Slavery.

As I wrote in my paper, it upset me to know how many Norther Publications either supported slavery or didn't voice criticism against it since I like to think the North was progressive, at least that was what I was taught in history class.

That being said, on page 29, I read about how it took the New York Tribune 20 years (20 YEARS!!!) to agree with Garrison on abolition. The Gazette even criticized his work. Although Garrison's approach to abolition differed from Douglass, by reading about the effects his paper had in growing the abolition movement, I realized how important it was to start some kind of dialog, even if it may not have been the one I wanted, such as arguing for full abolition. Another thing that disappointed me was that, not only did the mainstream media largely not support abolition in the beginning, but when someone like Garrison did voice support, the mainstream shunned him.

But because Garrison was able to keep that dialog going for so long, he was able to shift public opinion. As the chapter states, the majority of people were for slavery and that is easy to understand when the majority of the mainstream media was not shedding light on the horrors of slavery until much later.

Most of all, this chapter reinforced the notion that independent media had and still has an important role to play in our society. I am not saying I am ready to call it quits and stop reading and watching the mainstream media, but reading this chapter really made me feel afraid of what would happen had outlets like The Liberator and the North Star chosen to follow the dialog of the mainstream.

So, although I was raised watching the mainstream media with my dad and would work there if I was offered a job, I can't easily dismiss Indi outlets as I once might have because looking back at history, you can see just how influential these outlets were in starting conversations that would change public opinion and force the media to cover it.